The Balkan Volleyball Association

Plovdiv, Bulgaria, January 17, 2012. The women’s team of Maritza PLOVDIV achieved a historical

success by winning its first ever national cup of Bulgaria.

And it did so in an impressive fashion without losing a single set throughout the entire tournament.

With hundreds of fans cheering the Yellows from the stands of a fully packed Olimpiada sports

hall in Plovdiv, Maritza managed a convincing 3:0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-14) victory over traditional

powerhouse Levski Volley SOFIA in the final match of the 6-day Kupa Bulgariya tournament to

triumph with the trophy. Before making it to that decisive game, Maritza made a clean sweep

of Pool A and then dethroned incumbent cupholders CSKA SOFIA with a 3:0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-18)

win in an exciting semifinal. In the other semifinal, Pool B winner Levski also secured a straight-set

victory over Slaviya-SU SOFIA.

It is a rare occurence that Kupa Bulgariya goes to a team from outside the capital Sofia. In fact,

it has happened only four times in the 54 editions of the competiton with Maritza being only the

third non-Sofia club ever to join the list of cupholders.

Maritza captain Diana Malinova was awarded as tournament MVP. Her teammate Ivelina Monova

was honored as Best Libero of the competition, while Levski Volley took the other two individual

awards – Petya Barakova for Best Setter and Viktoriya Grigorova for Best Spiker.

”It feels like a dream, I don’t even know how to express how happy I am at this moment,” excited

Malinova said. ”We owe a lot to the fans who contributed greatly for this success and I would like

to thank them for their support.”

”Winning the cup is a great achievement by itself, but I also view it as another step of the ladder

that we have been climbing over the recent years,” Maritza head coach Ivan Petkov said in an

emotional statement upon raising the trophy. ”We celebrate tonight and resume work tomorrow

with our next goal being the national championship title in March. Our long-term objective is to

become a team of a higher European level.”

The mid-season break in the National Championship is coming to an end and Maritza is to welcome

Levski to Plovdiv again as soon as this coming Friday, January 20.